And more than anything, he felt crushed that Jade was no longer alive.
“How could you have done this!?” he wailed, hearing his own voice breaking. “You lied! You tricked me!”
“Oh grow up!” she snapped back. “You’re not real y that naïve. You knew there was no way he could live. But our love— that stil lives. Yes, I needed an excuse to bring you here. But now that you’re here, we’re together. That’s al that matters. And now, we can have a new child!”
Caleb wheeled and began to storm from the room, not trusting himself to even look in her direction. He was too furious, and too devastated.
But before he reached the door, he felt her icy grip on his arm, her nails digging into his flesh, as she spun him back around.
Now, she was scowling.
“Don’t you dare walk out on us!” she hissed. “Not after al we’ve been through!”
He glared back at her.
“Mark my words,” he said slowly, in a voice of steel, “I wil never see you again as long as I live.
Whether it is this life, or any other life. Nothing you can say or do wil ever bring me back into your presence.”
And with that, he shook off her arm, and stalked out of the room.
“Caleb!” she shrieked. “Caleb! Come back to me! I’m sorry!”
As Caleb hurried up the spiral staircase, heading to the roof, he could hear her wails and screams echoing throughout the huge, empty, medieval castle. And even as he reached the roof and flew off into the sky, he could stil hear her wailing, as her screams became one with the wind and birds and crashing of the waves.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Sam walked arm in arm with Caitlin through the formal grounds of Versail es. He had been so shocked to find her here, and to see her fighting. He had been so proud, watching his big sister. At first, he hadn’t realized it was her. He had just stood there, with the others, watching in awe as the tournaments continued.
He had been shocked to discover that the greatest warrior of them al was actual y his big sister.
He was in awe of her skil s. He’d never seen anyone fight that way. It was a combination of a human warrior, and a vampire master. She moved with lightning speed, striking, slashing, dodging, doing things he couldn’t even imagine. It was like watching art in motion.
After it had been over, after they had embraced, Caitlin had been surrounded by wel -wishers, people congratulating her in every direction. Even Aiden had come over, and had nodded approvingly. Sam had wanted to talk to Aiden, but Aiden didn’t even look his way, and immediately disappeared. And having found Caitlin, Sam felt no reason to need to talk to Aiden anymore anyway.
Caitlin had clearly been in her element. Sam had felt a rush of admiration for her, and pride that he was related to her.
And what felt even more special to him was that, despite al the wel -wishers who wanted to talk to her, Caitlin only wanted to leave the crowd and walk off alone with Sam. He was delighted to see that she missed him as much as he had missed her.
Finding her here was such a great surprise. He had imagined that he’d have to travel far and wide to find her; it never occurred to him that she might be right under his nose, in the same place he was. Now, final y, he felt settled.
He felt that maybe he could relax in this time and place now, and have it al : live in this beautiful palace, have his sister close by, safe, and have his relationship with Kendra.
Now, they could al just live, happily, and be close again, as big sister and little brother, just like they used to be.
As they walked, Sam thought back to al the terrible places they’d had to live together growing up, to al the times their mom had moved them. There were al those awful towns in the Midwest, in New Jersey, in the Hudson Val ey…And then, worst of al , Harlem. It had al just been terrible.
He looked back on their childhood now in a whole new light, knowing what Caitlin was, and knowing what he was. He had always felt, growing up, that the two of them were different. They had never quite fit in perfectly, had never quite been exactly like everybody else. He had always thought that it was just because they were always the newcomers in town. He had never imagined that the two of them were actual y, truly, special. That they had special powers. Were of a special race, a special coven. That they had a destiny, a mission.
And most of al , that their parents weren’t even their parents.
Sam had always felt a burning desire to find their father, and had never real y known why. But now that he knew how special their mission was, it al began to make sense.
Al the fights that he and Caitlin had had with their mother also made sense now, looking back.
He’d always felt as if their mother had never truly loved them, that she had looked at them as if they were not real y their kids. He had always wondered how they could even be related to her.
“I’m so sorry,” he said final y, as they walked through the gardens, past a huge fountain. “For everything that happened in New York. For my always getting you into trouble. And for what happened with Caleb. I know that the only reason you stabbed him was because of my shapeshifting. And I am so sorry that I tried to stab you. I was out of my senses.”
Caitlin looked down at him with the love of a big sister.
“Sam, you don’t have to apologize,” she said. Her voice sounded so much more mature, so much more confident. It was like the voice of a warrior. “That was lifetimes ago. And I know you didn’t mean it.”
“It was just…at the time, I was under the influence of Samantha,” he continued. “She had turned me. Everything was so…different. I wasn’t real y myself. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Everything happened for a reason,” Caitlin said. “I see that now. Caleb was meant to die. I was meant to come back for him. I was meant to be here, in these other times and places, and so were you. We’re on a quest. A journey. It’s not about us anymore. There’s a greater destiny at stake.
“What I’ve learned is that, on the one hand, yes, we do have free wil , and we have choices we can make. But on the other hand, so much of what we think we do is actual y destined. I can see that now. The more I embark on this journey, the more I am starting to see that destiny is actual y stronger than free wil . That we don’t actual y make that many choices after al . We only think that we make them.”
Sam thought about that. It rang true to him. He had been starting to feel the same thing himself, although he hadn’t thought it through as careful y as Caitlin. He was in awe at how wise she had become. He felt like he was standing before a hundred-year-old warrior.